


Plus One

by somethingsomething



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Everybody Lives, Anal Fingering, Blow Jobs, Cunnilingus, Multi, Post-Operation Pitfall, Pseudoscience, Sibling Incest, Threesome - F/M/M, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-17
Updated: 2015-06-15
Packaged: 2018-02-21 11:25:47
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2466509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/somethingsomething/pseuds/somethingsomething
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yancy lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This has been in progress for over a year; hopefully, posting the first chapter will mean the rest gets finished.

Yancy can sleep through every alarm ever. Unless it’s named Raleigh.

Raleigh thumps and yammers and fist bumps and, honestly, its all Yancy can do to stay awake and not fall into Raleigh’s bunk and back to sleep.

Instead, he says, “Don’t get cocky kid.”

 

The fight blurs together. Danger’s right arm is gone. The left side of the cockpit is shattered. Most of the hydraulics are shot. Half of Anchorage is ground down to dust.

 

When Knifehead resurfaces ( _Yance, what the hell. SHIT!_ ) and tears off Danger’s arm like it’s paper, Yancy reaches out at the same time as Raleigh and they twine their minds together tighter than knotted ear buds. They hold on, try to think through the sheer terror because this wasn’t something that they were ever told, never believed could happen ( _Yancyyancyyancyitdidn’tworkwhydidn’titwork_ ).

Knifehead comes clawing into the cockpit in the midst of Yancy desperately trying to soothe and encourage Raleigh and Drift hardware goes tumbling out of the cockpit. Yancy blacks out. Raleigh doesn’t. (And he doesn’t tell Yancy, not for years, that Yancy didn’t black out either. You have to be alive for that.)

Eventually, they save Anchorage. They’re told that it took them hours. Half of Anchorage is ground down to dust. They’re also told that they found Gipsy dead on the beach, both pilots unconscious inside. Impossibly, they’re told, they were still Drifting despite the fact that a large portion of the necessary tech was floating somewhere out in the ocean. The rescue crews had to bring training equipment out to reinstate the Drift to separate the minds of the Beckets.

 _That doesn’t sound very good_ , a voice inside his head says. Yancy isn’t entirely sure it’s his own.

 

He doesn’t see Raleigh for days, and it burns. The doctors tell Yancy that he and Raleigh received extensive brain damage, the kind that should give them hallucinations, voices, loss of sight, hearing, smell. They tell him that his fidgeting, general anxiety and nightmares are to be expected. He went through a traumatic event that he shouldn’t have survived. This is normal and nothing to worry about.

Finally, when the drive suit scars are beginning stay closed for more than an hour, the doctors relent and let them see each other.

Yancy really wishes they hadn’t.

It starts with shaking. Tiny tremors in his fingers. No big deal, save for his ratcheting heart rate.

The tremors travel up his fingers to his hands to his arms, up his shoulders and all the way down to his toes. Raleigh’s worse, Yancy can see him, shaking so hard the nurses and doctors have to hold him up. Yancy isn’t far behind.

Then the pounding fear starts beating against their ribs and skulls, threatening to crack open their bones. His stomach churns and the rations come crawling up his throat. Someone screams and his throat burns. All he can see and hear is Knifehead and buildings crumbling under his tank-like feet and _No, no, you can’t, I won’t let you, stay in the Drift!_

He blacks out. They carry Raleigh and Yancy back to their separate rooms. They sleep for days.

 

Raleigh and Yancy woke up in separate rooms because they were seizing the whole ride back to the Shatterdome. Experts can’t say why, only that it wasn’t faulty equipment from the disconnect from the Drift, even if it was with training gear.

 

They try again. And again and again and again until the doctors are worried that Raleigh and Yancy have thrown up more than they’ve kept down.

It’s a brutal cycle. The ghost drift makes Yancy want to curl up with Raleigh but whatever this is makes him want to get as far away as possible. The doctors say that the best thing for now is to heal – separately. The suggestion is both soothing balm and burning knife.

In the end, Marshal Pentecost comes and speaks to them alone. They’re both dismissed. Raleigh and Yancy leave the Icebox without saying goodbye. They’re told that even a glimpse of each other down a hallway to shout could send them into panic attacks. Yancy doesn’t have to be told twice. 

Yancy’s not sure what hurts worse – the fact that he can’t say goodbye to his baby brother, or the fact that he’s relieved that he’s being ordered not to.

 

Mako Mori hears about the Becket brothers and their…unique situation. Everyone else the world over seems to be treating it as something fascinating but far removed. The overwhelming opinion seems to be that they got what they deserved. _Pilots are meant to defend us, not be famous. It’s time they focused on that_ , people in town say.

Mako tries not to judge; these are people who have had their city trampled on. Then again, she managed not to begrudge Sensei and Tamsin, so her sympathy only extends so far.

Long after the Beckets are discharged from the PPDC, sensei takes Mako to see the scrapped out Jaeger that was Lady Danger. Mako comments on repairs – what to keep, what to scrap, what to make better. She’s seen the footage the Helicorp managed to get and there’s a glaring inconsistency. She’s noted where the Beckets failed in their overconfidence but what could’ve saved them was a faster-acting secondary weapon. She tells sensei as much as they move towards the shattered cockpit.

The footage from Raleigh fighting alone imprints on her eyelids. That night, Mako has some of the worst nightmares since Tokyo.

 

More time passes, and Mako joins the Jaeger Academy. She wants, more than anything, to be a pilot, but those opportunities are looking to be fewer and farther in-between. She studies Jaegers and their schematics with a vengeance, determined to be as close to the fight as possible. Sensei takes note.

He hands her a stack of thick manila folders one night at dinner. He’s somehow managed to find enough white rice, the good, fluffy, sticky kind. The folders are more import than most.

“I want you to spearhead the remodeling of the Mark III Jaegers,” he says as Mako opens the first one. The top pages are blue and white, designs for Lady Danger chalked out across the neat little squares.

“What about the Mark Vs?” she asks. She’s seen the work they’ve been doing on the first and despite her love for the Mark Is, the unnamed guardian with her angel wings is set to be the most impressive of them yet. Mako can feel goosebumps crawling along her skin in anticipation of seeing her run for the first time. The engineers are pushing for seventy miles per hour.

Stacker frowns, his lips tightening together to keep his words neutral. “They’re what we need, but there’s been talk from the UN that our funding won’t be able to commission a complete roster. It’s better if we have something to fall back on, something that can spread our resources a little more.”

“And pilots?” Mako keeps asking questions, though it’s mostly on autopilot. She’s itching to go to Anchorage and see the pieces of Danger again, to start piecing her back together. She’ll be better than new, Mako promises.

“I’ve got three in mind, for now.”

That makes Mako’s eyebrows rise. Sensei drinks his water, but his eyes seem brighter. Mako wants to ask “Me?” but what comes out is, “Three?”

The lights dims fractionally. The Icebox is old, built quickly and not quite strong enough for the ice. “Mm. Work on that. Danger should be your first priority as she’s the most intact. See what you can come up with. We’re going to San Francisco in two days.”

Mako goes to bed late that night, her eyes dry and gritty from flipping through every book and manual on Jaegers and Drifting she has. She’s going to have to put in a call to Hong Kong.

 

Raleigh goes to build the Wall. It’s comforting, doesn’t require a lot of thinking. It’s just repetitive motions, no higher brain function required.

When he does think, he does his best to keep away from thoughts like Jaegers, Kaiju, Yancy. Those words have a nasty habit of searing their way through his brain, lighting everything up in the worst kind of high. There are pills he could take to help with the anxiety, doctors he could talk to for the PTSD, therapy for his shoulder, but Beckets are the worst kind of stubborn. All Raleigh really needs is time to not think and maybe, if he’s really lucky, he’ll be able to look Yancy in the face one day.

 

Yancy heads overseas. He stops in with Jaz for a couple weeks first because his mother put him in charge when she passed away and the power of last words and final charges has always held sway over him.

Jaz lets him in when he shows up on her doorstep. She hugs him tight enough that his bones chafe. His ribs press against his lungs and everything stale bubbles out of him, sticking to the walls of his throat. Jaz keeps holding on and Yancy clings back, joints weak, the sheer force of deathanxietyfearanger leaving him in a breath.

Jaz loosens her arms and Yancy inhales. The tension comes creeping back in, worming down under his skin, twisting and twinning, but he feels…better. Not okay or alright or good enough, but better.

Jaz half-guides, half-carries Yancy into her room. She tucks him in as if she’s the older sister and he the younger brother. Yancy would protest but he’s shattered. It’s nice to be taken care of, for once.

 

He wanders into the kitchen when the morning light is gray and diffuse. Jaz is sitting at her kitchen table in a lumpy sweater and leggings. (People frequently comment on how someone should really be giving the Beckets endorsements for the sheer amount of sweaters they own.) The smell of coffee hangs in the air, the percolator still burbling.

“How’d you manage all this?” he asks. He’s been opening cupboards trying to find a mug and the cans of coffee and boxes of tea (she has _sugar_ , a whole half pound of it) are nothing short of impressive.

Jaz smirks as she drinks from her ridiculously-sized mug. “Oh, you know. Tendo. Pretty rich boys trying to impress a girl. The older med students feeling bad for the seventeen-year-old orphan. Don’t worry, I share.”

Yancy wants to scold her for taking advantage of people (Tendo doesn’t count; he takes care of his own) but it could be worse. He’s seen what people on the coast will do for clean water. Jaz lives in Nevada and real estate ain’t cheap, even in a desert with little to offer besides a distinct lack of open water. And the coffee tastes even better than it smells.

Eventually, Yancy leaves Nevada to cross the Atlantic. Seeing Jaz was good for the raw wounds in his soul but lying around her house all day did little for his body. His soul, though, feels smoothed over. His baby sister has apparently started on her way to becoming some kind of black market leader/war lord. Yancy lost count of the number of people who came to Jaz’s apartment looking to trade vegetables, fruit, even _bread_ for coffee, sugar or chocolate. There were also kids frequently running around the place, Jaz at the center of the maelstrom of cookies and finger paints.

Have a Becket and a family is soon to follow.

 

Europe, it turns out, is only doing marginally better than America. Partially because it doesn’t have a boarder with the Pacific, but mostly because the UN is in the process of moving its headquarters and with politics comes money.

Other than a mostly-intact landscape and a slightly freer market, Europe is still racked with inflation, unemployment and food shortages. “Better” is a whole new kind of relative, these days.

Europe and Africa also have a somewhat unique problem – its orphanages are being overfilled. Yancy learns this on a walk around Berlin one rainy October morning. He sees the kids (muddy and a little ragged, they remind him of growing up with-just-enough money in Alaska) one day and his German is enough that he gets a rundown of the problem. Refugees come to the big cities in hopes of work and safety, find some of the latter and little of the former. Kids, it seems, are disposable. So the orphanages fill up, outnumbering the workers twenty-five to one on a good day.

Yancy has a bright idea.

 

Chuck Hansen is the only one saying it out loud, but the Marshall’s plan is, in a word, bullshit.

Mako can see the ideal in bringing back the Beckets. They were good pilots on their own, an excellent team with an exceptionally good neural handshake. But the Beckets frequently defied orders and were overly brash and confident with raging overtones of bullheadedness. This is nothing to say of the fact that, the last anyone saw, neither Becket could be in the same room as the other without experiencing severe mental and physical distress.

She was in charge of rebuilding (perfecting) Lady Danger after Anchorage. Danger, is, at this point, as much hers as the Beckets, if not more so.

Mako says this to the Marshall, albeit with far less irritation and far more respect. Sensei knows, though. He’s always been able to see through her.

“Piloting isn’t about skill, Mako. It’s about trust,” he says. Then, “I am sorry, Mako, but this isn’t the time.”

Mako wants to scream in frustration but her mother’s voice whispers _Respect your Sensei, Mako-chan_ , and Mako listens. She respects Sensei and so she will obey.

Mako goes back to her room to quadruple-check her schematics. There are ways to build in redundant systems in that no one will notice.

 

Raleigh sort of kind of wants to punch Stacker Pentecost in the face when he says, “So where would you rather die? Here, or in a Jaeger?”

Because Raleigh Becket still feels his brother dying in his head, repeatedly, something like the lights flickering on and off every few minutes. He’s never told anyone, or tried to explain, even to himself, how Yancy is still alive and not some sort of vegetable. All that really matters is that Raleigh can still feel the terror (Yancy’s) and the grief (Raleigh’s) and desperately twisting their minds together even tighter than they were to keep his brother. Stacker’s question brings it all back, though if Raleigh’s being honest, everything sits pretty close to the surface these days.

Raleigh’s mind is made up right then and there because he’s already died once in a jaeger and–

And it wasn’t so bad the first half-dozen times.

 

Yancy, apparently, has grown even more reflective in his old age than his younger brother. Stacker uses the same line, only this time, Becket simply readjusts his grip on the baby in his arms as he tries to get the little girl to take a bottle. A boy of about six with shockingly bright red hair clings to his back. Neither Yancy nor the boy seem to particularly notice.

Eventually, Yancy looks up. “Marshal, I’ll be honest with you. I don’t know who you plan on me piloting with, but I doubt my brain could take even half the neural load. It’s just…I’m sorry. I’m not your guy.”

Stacker smiles, slow and steady. This is what he does best, standing as a fixed point. At some point, the Beckets will realize that they are the peasants going to slay dragons and it’s an uphill battle. It’s Stacker’s job to get them to leave the rolling green hills.

“I think you’ll like what we’ve come up with.”

Somehow, those are the magic words. Yancy bundles some sweaters together, says goodbye to the children in a variety of languages and leaves instructions for the rest of the orphanage staff.

He hopes he’ll get to come back sans Kaiju. Then again, he’s never been particularly lucky.

 

Raleigh’s brain cells shift when Yancy lands on the roof of the Hong Kong Shatterdome. Years before, the parts of his brain that were Yancy would try and claw their way to the surface, raking the nails keeping them in Raleigh’s brain out and scraping along the inside of his skull anytime Yancy was near. Now they mostly serve as a long-range homing device of sorts. Sometimes, when Raleigh was exhausted after the rain and snow and wind at the top of the wall, he could feel Yancy thousands of miles away. If Raleigh had wanted, he could’ve followed that beacon all the way to wherever Yancy had landed himself.

When they finally see each other in medical, it’s, well. The Yancy in him pulses gently, like a heartbeat waking up. He watches the part of him in Yancy do the same. They walk towards each other, waiting for the old shakes and flashbacks to come crowding back but all there is are shaking breaths and trembling brain cells. (The good kind, the kind that is excited and _home_.) Neither of them will remember whose knees give out first, but by the time they’re ready to face the world again, they’re supporting each other on the floor.

Anxiety buzzes in the back of Raleigh’s brain, a voice whispering _Remember what happened last time? Remember how you trusted him? Believed in him? Where did that get you?_ There are more important things right now, so he pushes it away in favor of trying to hold his brother tight enough to meld themselves together without a Pons.

The doctors take brain scans, titter among themselves, and then Raleigh and Yancy meet Mako Mori.

 

Raleigh and Yancy are too busy running feather-light fingers across shoulders and down arms to notice that the doctors seem to be in debate about something Not Good. Mako catches the eye of Dr. Barnes, the head neurologist and one of the best after Dr. Lightcap. She shakes her head in a way that says _I’m not sure yet, you’ll know when I know._ Mako nods back and turns to the prodigal sons.

They’re respectful enough, certainly more reserved than reports and interviews had led her to believe. She’s no longer entirely sure that she’s cultivated an appropriate list of candidates for either of them. To be honest, she’s not entirely sure what the marshal has planned.

She shows them to Lady Danger and saying that they’re impressed.... Their duffles drops to the floor and Mako’s sure she’s never seen a look that says home quite like what’s on the Becket brothers. Oh, sure, pilots have been impressed and eager and excited when faced with their Jaeger, but this is something else entirely, something that’s warm and spreads from Raleigh and Yancy until it’s curling up in her chest, too.

Yancy asks her questions about the improvements. Raleigh assures her that Danger’s always been one of kind.

 

Mako says, “I imagined them differently,” in Japanese to Sensei on the Shatterdome floor.

“Better or worse?” Raleigh asks in an accent that would hurt her ears if he wasn’t so eager about it.

She’s not sure yet, but Raleigh and Yancy are earning a point or two in the right direction.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drift tech may be one of the hottest fields, but there's still a little mystery left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's heavy on the pseudoscience. It might require some suspension of disbelief.

Raleigh and Yancy sit on one side of a long conference table, doctors and scientists and the marshal on the other. Mako is there too, sitting on the far left. Dr. Barnes slides brain scans from Raleigh and Yancy’s old Drifts.

“The first brain scans are from when you two entered the Academy,” she says. “The second set is from right after Knifehead. As you can see, you both experienced brain damage. Raleigh experienced motor degradation from the loss of the right arm. Your brain, Mr. Becket, believed that your arm had been ripped from its body because of how pilots are linked to the Jaegers. Thankfully, that issue has resolved itself. Both of you also had brain damage from the nature of your broken drift. We think,” Dr. Barnes takes a deep breath, “we think that you two somehow managed to exchange parts of yourselves that weren’t just memories. It would explain how you still had a functioning neural handshake despite missing the majority of the Pons. From what either of you remember, does this seem likely?”

“Yes.”

Dr. Barnes seems unphased by Raleigh and Yancy’s joint response, both of them flipping between scans in a way that looks practiced. A man to her right does, and he writes something down in a notebook. Dr. Barnes nods. “Take a look at the next scan. Those were taken yesterday, both while you were in the same room and in separate ones.”

They look at the scans and something in the back of their heads prickles. Yancy wants to ask a question, the words on the tip of his tongue–

“They look different,” Raleigh says, “like they’re not our brains anymore.”

Dr. Barnes smiles. It’s a weird gesture, more a reflex than anything else.

“That is because, gentlemen, they’re not. However you did it out in that Jaeger, you managed to physically swap your brains.”

“What?”

“Part of you is Raleigh, Yancy, and vice versa. We don’t know what’ll happen if you Drift again. Neither of you have a whole singular brain anymore. A whole, functioning brain to be sure, but not one that is entirely your own. A permanent ghost drift, if you will.”

“But instead of a resonance, part of me is physically Raleigh?” Yancy asks.

“It’s the thought patterns, really. Pilots’ brains are never connected matter to matter. Whatever happened out there, you two managed to convince your brains that part of you is the other. It would explain the symptoms you both experienced immediately after Knifehead. We think that your brains were trying to reject the parts that didn’t belong to you, much like a organ donor recipient.” Dr. Barnes seems oddly unphased, as though descriptions of mental transference are an everyday thing for her.

Yancy presses his feet to the ground to make sure it hasn’t actually fallen out from underneath him. “Should we.” He stops, breathes, starts again. “Should we be worried about this?”

Dr. Barnes makes a gesture with her hand. “We don’t think so. You’ve both been living on other sides of the world for years and seem fine. Your brains are functioning normally save for their make-up. You can both still process information at your previous rates and aptitudes. What we’re mostly concerned about is the impact that this will have on your Drift. We doubt that your brains will resume their pre-Knifehead configurations given how long it’s been, but we’d like to try this outside of a Conn-Pod for your dry run.”

Raleigh looks at Yancy for the first time since they’d sat down. Yancy looks back at Dr. Barnes. “We’re game,” Raleigh says.

 

The Drift is not strong and does not hold. It barely even takes.

They try for hours. Dr. Barnes stands next to Tendo as they try and figure out what’s wrong. Tendo insists that Raleigh and Yancy still have Drift compatibility, they were pulling a Siamese twins act and everything. Dr. Barnes doesn’t disagree, but they’re just not holding a Drift. 

Mako gets in a glance over their shoulders and–

“Mako?” Tendo asks.

“Look,” Mako says, pointing at the screens. “It looks like they have half a drift.”

“Half a drift?” Dr. Barnes sounds like she doesn’t quite believe it, but, well. “Can you change the schematics so that only one hemisphere is powered?” she asks Tendo.

“I can try.”

“Command Shift Alt Enter one-three-two-zero,” Mako says in a rush.

“What?” Tendo says. He and Dr. Barnes forget the Beckets for a minute.

“Command Shift Alt Enter one-three-two-zero” Mako repeats. When Tendo and Dr. Barnes continue to stare at Mako in confusion, she blushes. “The marshal thought something like this might happen, and so I wrote code.”

“You…wrote code?” Tendo says, confusion the most dominant emotion on his face.

“Yes. In case Danger turned out to need three pilots. There are other configurations, such as for a neural load that divides evenly between three pilots. This command will divide it 50-25-25. Two pilots for one side.”

Dr. Barnes’ brow draws together. “But why? That’s a lot of trouble to go to, given the Beckets’ history. We didn’t exactly know that this would happen.”

Tendo shrugs. “Lot of techs say that trust and love power a drift. It’s not all hard science, Doc,”

“You’ve watched _Firefly_ too many times,” Dr. Barnes says.

“Pardon me,” Mako says as Tendo opens his mouth to begin his list of Top 100 Reasons Why _Firefly_ was God’s Greatest Gift to Mankind, “but the sim?”

“On it, Mako!” Tendo says.

The next Drift shows Pilot 02 dark but Pilot 01 is radiant. “Well fuck me sideways,” Tendo says.

“The marshal will want to know about this,” Dr. Barnes says.

 

They’re back in the conference room and all Raleigh wants to do is crawl inside Yancy. Drifting, even if it was only a neural relay for sims, had taken it’s toll. Every neural handshake had been heavy, like running through maple syrup.

But the last Drift? The last Drift had been lopsided but strong. A mountain missing its western slope.

He’d felt Yancy then, the two of them flowing through each other’s minds again. The old fears lurked on the edges, but the Drifts had been too short, too full of starts and stops to have to worry about them.

Outside of Raleigh’s headspace, Dr. Barnes has just finished her report to the marshal.

Pentecost looks over the papers in front of him. He looks to Raleigh and Yancy. “When was the last time you two played football?”

 

It takes a few minutes, but the Beckets figure out that _football_ means _soccer_. They play on the Kwoon mats because it’s the only thing with enough friction for the ball to actually have some traction. Carpeting a place like the Shatterdome would have cost too much in the heyday, let alone at the end of the world, and grass was a hot item in cities long before Kaiju Blue.

The goal, Mako Mori had explained in an unimpressed voice, was to keep the ball away from the candidates and each other. The first person to score four goals wins. With that, she’d retreated to steps to stand next the marshal.

Raleigh likes being back on the Kwoon mats, likes the push and pull of feeding off of Yancy’s energy. He doesn’t like the way Mako says _four points to three_.

“Okay, what,” he finally says, stopping the ball under his foot. He feels Yancy roll his eyes but he still stands behind Raleigh, close enough that Raleigh’s shoulder almost brushes against Yancy’s chest when they breath.

“Excuse me?” Mako asks.

“Every time a match ends you a make a little,” Raleigh says, making what Yancy calls the bitch face to end all bitch faces, “like you’re critical of their performance. These were supposed to be your handpicked candidates, right?”

 _Easy, Rals,_ floats from Yancy’s head to Raleigh’s.

“It’s not their performance. It’s yours,” Mako says, leaning forward on the steps.

Raleigh’s eyes go wide and Yancy’s amusement drifts into his head. “You could’ve ended each match two goals earlier. And you, Mr. Becket,” Mako says to Yancy, “act as if you are waiting for something. You are not here for backup. You are here to be part of a whole.”

Yancy straightens up in surprise and a little…amusement? Is he _impressed_? Raleigh has half a mind to delve into that, but his mouth is already running. “Can we change this up? Let her have a shot?” he asks the marshal.

“Stick to the cadet list we have,” Pentecost says, “only those with drift compatibility –,”

“Which I _have_ , Marshal,” Mako interrupts.

“This is also about physical compatibility, Mako.”

“What’s the matter, Marshal. Don’t think your brightest can cut in the ring with us?” Raleigh says. Yancy sends out, _If we die, I’m coming after you_.

_Relax, bro. Besides, 51 drops, 51 kills. I wanna see that. Don’t you? Wish we could do this old school, with hanbo._

Yancy hums in his throat as they spread out across the mat.

Here’s the thing: Mako’s right. Raleigh has been lazy and Yancy cautious. She lets them have one point each out of the goodness of her heart. After that? Well. They have muscles. They might as well use them.

Mako stands to the left of Raleigh, Yancy facing them. The soccer ball rests just in front of him. Raleigh fairly resonates next to Mako, Yancy vibrating in front of her.

Mako steps out with her left foot and kicks the ball with her right

to Raleigh, who wasn’t there a moment before but is just in time to catch the ball. Raleigh dribbles the ball behind Yancy and back towards the goal. He passes the ball to Yancy when Mako comes up against his side to steal it.

Yancy starts down the mat but there’s Mako, herding him towards the edge. Raleigh comes up behind them, changing their direction so that all of them are headed towards the corner. Yancy shoots the out and to the left at the last moment and – 

“2-1-1, Becket, Y.,” Pentecost calls out.

Yancy throws Mako a grin as he puts the ball back in the center. “Was that energetic enough for you, Ms. Mori?”

Mako raises her eyebrow in acknowledgement. “Energetic, yes. On task? No.”

Raleigh is too busy snickering so Yancy passes the ball to Mako. They continue down the mat, playing a weird version of monkey-in-the-middle as they circle around Raleigh.

Raleigh, though, watches Mako and Yancy, and Yancy’s right hand twitches before he passes to Mako. Mako’s left shoulder drops when she steps out to catch the ball. This time, though, Raleigh is already dribbling towards the goal to score another point.

“2-2-1, Becket, Y. and Becket, R. More control, Ms. Mori,” comes the voice from on high.

Raleigh, who is either trying to show off or is getting bored, starts the next round by rolling the ball onto his foot and kicking into the air. Yancy, despite Raleigh’s _I don’t know, old man, it’s been a while and you’re getting up there in years_ manages to do a bicycle kick that doesn’t break his leg. It’s perfect, headed straight towards the goal.

Except for Mako surging up and head-butting it back towards Raleigh. Yancy scrambles upright, trying to dig his foot in hard enough to propel himself forward, but Raleigh’s already kicked the ball back down to Mako.

Mako dribbles down the last ten feet of the mat, Yancy trying to dart between her feet long enough to score, but Mako uses her elbow. She doesn’t ram him in the gut, but it’s still sharp in his diaphragm when he gets to close. Mako shoots and scores, and Stacker says “Two, all.”

“Better watch it,” Mako says to Raleigh and Yancy. Raleigh swears his heart stops for a second. He hears Yancy laughing in his head.

_A bit early to be picking out baby names, isn’t?_

_You’re so fucking funny, I’m in stiches. Like you don’t think she’s amazing, too._

Yancy laughs good-naturedly and Mako shoots him and Raleigh a look. He wonders what she thinks of them and their mismatched brainwaves.

 _I told you,_ Raleigh says. Yancy would think something back at him, but Mako’s already tearing down the mat.

All three of them are bunched around the ball, feet flashing around the ball. Raleigh goes to plant his right foot on the ball only to find that it’s actually Mako’s foot on top. He could’ve sworn….

Mako does something and he’s on his knees, watching as she scores a neat goal. Yancy laughs in the back of his head.

Mako scores the fourth point and neither Becket is sorry that they’ve had their asses handed to them.

Pentecost says, “I’ve seen what I needed to see.”

Yancy says, “Me too,” and Raleigh picks up with “She’s our co-pilot.”

It turns out that Pentecost still says no, even with the responsible Becket present.

 

Out in the hallway, Raleigh tells Mako that they can fight this, they don’t have to just listen to the Marshal. Mako tells him flat out that it’s not obedience, it’s respect.

He’s a little annoying, the big, bulky American, but he’s sweet and earnest. Mako pulls on an oatmeal-colored cardigan without thought. She wears it to the mess hall for breakfast where Yancy jogs up to her.

“Raleigh told me what you said in the hallway. He’s a little pushy, so thanks for not jacking his jaw,” he says, his smile a muted copy of Raleigh’s. “If you’re sure, though.”

Mako nods once before grabbing a tray. “Thank you for you sincerity, Mr. Becket, but the marshal was clear.”

Yancy looks disappointed but nods and leaves her to her breakfast.

Back in Mako’s room, thirty minutes before the Beckets are to drift with a shiny new co-pilot, Pentecost gives Mako a little red shoe.

 

Mako walks into Danger’s Conn-Pod. “Aren’t you gonna say anything?” she asks Raleigh and Yancy.

“No point,” Yancy says.

“You’re gonna be in our heads in a minute,” Raleigh says. Then: “You look good.” Yancy laughs and Mako grins at both of them.

“Does he always do that?” Mako asks Yancy.

“What? Wear his heart on his sleeve or operate without a filter?”

Raleigh looks close to putting Yancy into a headlock until Tendo’s voice tells them to strap in.

The Drift washes over them.

 

Yancy and Raleigh sit on either side of Mako, legs hanging off the catwalk across from Danger’s heart, and apologize. Mako asks them when they last saw her heart.

“Not for a long time,” they say.

 

That night, Mako can’t sleep. She tosses and turns for hours, memories of sleepless nights working the Wall running in a loop.

She gives up a little after one, slipping back into her clothes to walk to Raleigh’s quarters. He and Yancy had been given separate quarters, just in case, though it doesn’t seem to have mattered; Yancy opens the door in a T-shirt and boxers, his hair flattened on one side of his head.

“You too?” he asks, stepping back and opening the door wider.

Mako nods and steps in. She stands just to the right of the door, hands clasped behind her back.

Raleigh’s on the bed. He props himself up on one elbow, the bed sheets sliding down to pool at his waist. Mako reminds herself not to stare.

“Sorry,” Raleigh says, blushing a little. “Your insomnia shouldn’t last too much longer if it’s from me.”

Yancy leans against the door next to Mako. He’s close enough that she can feel his warmth but far enough away that they don’t touch.

“I picked it up too,” Yancy says. “You can hang here with us if you want. I think we can get Raleigh to put on a shirt if we really put our minds to it.” He smiles wide, watching Mako while he talks, and it’s no wonder those trashy teen magazines Tend would bring back from from Anchorage labeled it “The Patented Becket Charm.”

“I do not want to intrude,” Mako says, looking between Raleigh and Yancy.

“You’ve been inside our heads, Mako,” Yancy says. From Chuck it would be condescending. From Yancy, it’s a reminder, a gentle tease.

“We can fit on the bed if you don’t mind squeezing,” Raleigh says. He face falls and he adds, “Or Yance and I can take the chairs. Or we can drag his mattress in here and we’ll sleep on the floor. Or we can-”

“Raleigh,” Mako says with a smile. “It is fine. We can share.” She toes out of her boots and folds her button-down next to them. Mako pauses, hand on her belt buckle. She slips out of her pants and folds them on top of her shirt.

Raleigh smiles up at her as she crosses to the bed. “Hi,” he says, holding up the blankets.

“Hi,” Mako says back, sliding over until their chests touch. Yancy slides in behind her and rests an arm across her waist and Raleigh’s.

“The two of you are ridiculous,” Yancy says, nudging his nose against Mako’s hair.

Mako giggles, and Raleigh says, “Well excuse _me_ oh ancient god of stoicism.”

“That’s a good one, Rals. I didn’t know you knew how to pronounce _stoicism_.”

“Shut up, Yance.”

“Yeah, yeah. ’Night, kid, Mako,” Yancy says, already half-asleep.

“’Night,” Mako and Raleigh echo. They giggle, and Yancy grumbles.

 

The next few days start with Dr. Newton Geiszler drifting with a kaiju brain and ends with Mako, Raleigh and Yancy on an escape pod in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post-Pitfall, and post-Drift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're not here for threesome incest, you should probably this chapter (the rating's there for a reason), or at least most of it if you want the mild cliff-hanger from the last chapter solved.

It takes a long time to work through the end of the Jaeger program.

Mako spends long hours in sensei’s office, going over paperwork and keeping him in bed when he tries to sneak forms instead of resting. Herc helps, when he’s not with Chuck.

The work keeps her busy, but there’s the nagging question of what she’ll be doing with her life, now that she’s achieved everything she ever set out to do.

 

There’s a victory tour the summer after Pitfall, and it’s a long series of people smiling and shaking Mako’s hand and thanking her for her sacrifice. The hole in her heart that used to fit Jaegers is closed over but tender, every politician proclaiming their undying support of the PPDC and every interviewer asking if Pitfall was really the best plan a needle poking at her heart. Sensei says that it will pass, but he doesn’t say how long it takes. Mako would like nothing more than to call the politicians, but the PPDC still needs support.

The days upon days of frustration would be easier to deal with if her nights weren’t also so grating.

It’s not Raleigh and Yancy. Or rather, it is, but the Drift, strong as it had been between them, makes it worse.

She sleeps in the single bed with them a few nights post-Pitfall, through the worst of the hangover and the nights when the thought of _you’re done, finished, there’s nothing left for you to do_ hit hardest. Mako had tried waiting it out until the echoes in her head and heart grew to be too much for one person, and then she’d gone across the hall to Yancy’s room.

Raleigh had opened the door (they never opened the door to their own room, it was always the other) and pulled her inside. He and Yancy had bundled her into the single bunk, and she didn’t emerge until the next evening.

The hangover had died off since then, but she catches glimpses every now and then. It doesn’t help that Raleigh and Yancy so often experience the same emotions, broadcasting them simultaneously to her.

Tonight, for instance, they’re both in Yancy’s room in a New York hotel. One room alone is bigger than most of the places Mako has lived in.

There’s a restlessness coming from them and creeping through the wall separating Yancy’s room from Mako’s. Mako’s knee keeps bouncing when she’s not paying attention, and she finds herself chewing her pen as she reads over the notes from public relations for the luncheon tomorrow. There’s a heat in her belly, too, her throat burning as Raleigh and Yancy knock back something alcoholic.

Some time between 10 and 11, Mako gives up and slides her keycard into her back pocket. Raleigh opens the door to Yancy’s room before she has the chance to knock. He’s missing his shirt, which isn’t all that unusual, and his hair is sticking up in all directions, which is.

Raleigh grins, _easy as pie_ , Yancy likes to say, and steps back to let her in. “Was wondering if you were gonna come over. Yancy found some scotch.”

“I was trying to prepare for tomorrow but somebody,” she says, pointed but smiling, as she walks to the table Yancy’s sitting at, “is restless tonight.” She smiles at Yancy, too, as he comes into view at the table, bottle and glasses in the middle.

Yancy’s smile is small and sheepish. “Sorry about that,” he says. He’s still wearing his shirt, but it’s wrinkled, like it’s been lying on the floor.

Mako studies him, head tilted to the side. Yancy doesn’t look up, focused instead on twirling his glass between his fingers. Raleigh sits next to him, their chairs close enough that Raleigh’s practically on top of Yancy when they sit.

Yancy turns his head to respond to something Raleigh’s said – a reminder to be polite to the senators and congressmen tomorrow even if they are “epic fucknuts,” or to ask what kind of insult “fucknuts” is – and his collar drags down and there’s a fresh bruise on his collarbone and – 

Mako breathes in sharply, and they’re all so wound up in each other that Raleigh and Yancy feel their lungs expand before they hear it.

“Mako?” Raleigh asks, but Yancy already knows, pulling his shirt collar up. It’s hard to read his face, but they’re in the same room now. There’s fear and a little shame coming across what’s left of the Drift. Hope that she’ll understand, defiance in case she doesn’t.

“I did not-” Mako tries, but that’s all wrong, because she did, in the way you know a fact no one’s ever told you outright. “I would not have come over if I had known,” she says. “I will go, and leave you two together.”

She’s halfway to the door, her own keycard out of her pocket, Raleigh still looking between her and Yancy, when Yancy says, “Mako.” It’s hesitant, the uncertainty of what he’s going to say or what she’ll do flooding Mako. It goes against most of what she knows about Yancy, the older brother raising his younger siblings, enlisting in the PPDC when Raleigh was old enough. Yancy always has a plan. Except for this.

“There are statistics,” she says, still moving to the door because they haven’t told her to go, but they haven’t asked her to stay, either. “Pilots were more likely to sleep together,” her voice skips a little on “sleep”, “even if they were not previously involved or siblings,” and her voice skips again.

Raleigh catches on, and his face goes through five different emotions in less than the time it takes to blink before it settles somewhere between concerned and anxious.

“Mako we can expl–” he says, hand out, but Yancy cuts in.

“Stay?” he asks, half out of his chair. “Please?”

Mako and Raleigh both look at him.

Yancy sighs. “We should probably talk about it, since we’re all still ghosting.” Mako and Raleigh don’t move, and Yancy sighs again. “I swear, it’s like having two ten-year-old Raleighs around again.” He smiles as he says it, but it’s small and tired, the joke falling between them.

Mako and Raleigh sit down. Yancy runs a hand through his hair.

“It started after our first deployment,” he says. “You spend all that time in someone else’s head–”

“You forget how to be alone,” Raleigh says. Raleigh and Yancy look at each other for a long, long time.

“I know,” Mako says. She pours two fingers of scotch. She stares at the amber refractions on the table as Raleigh and Yancy look at her. “I felt it, in the Drift.”

Raleigh looks back and forth between Mako and Yancy. “And?”

The heat in Mako’s belly isn’t just from the alcohol. Yancy looks at her, and the flush high on her cheeks. He smiles, and it’s not wide and happy or sharp and cruel, but it has an intent far from innocent. He knows; he felt it.

“There are statistics,” he tells Raleigh.

 

Mako’s still in her chair at the table, Yancy’s chair pushed close, Raleigh trying to sit in both of their laps and ending up more or less in Mako’s.

Raleigh’s squirming a little as he kisses Mako, one hand cupping the back of her head, the other pushed inside her blouse and bra to cup her breast, thumb playing with her nipple. It’s almost an after-thought, his thumb on her skin; it starts and stops without any real rhythm, Raleigh too focused on leaving wet, open kisses along her mouth, her jaw, her neck. Or maybe there is a rhythm, and Mako’s the one too preoccupied with unbuckling Raleigh’s belt.

Yancy’s there too, pressed up against Mako and Raleigh’s sides, kissing and sucking at any skin he can reach. Mako turns to kiss Yancy, and then Raleigh again, and then she’s watching as Raleigh kisses Yancy. It looks the way it felt in those half-remembered Drift memories that were too quick before. Now, they come back with a soft little _Oh_ , the way a book is remembered halfway through the first chapter.

“Raleigh really likes going down on people,” Yancy says, and the coals in Mako’s belly flicker to life. Raleigh’s hips twitch and his hard-on presses against Mako’s stomach.

“Does he?” Mako asks, all the fire in her gut reflected in her face.

“Yeah,” Raleigh says, voice hoarse, and he’s looking down at her with need and want and a little desperation. “Can I?”

“Yeah,” Mako says. Raleigh grins and kisses her again, his hips stuttering against her belly like he’s too focused on mapping her mouth with his to pay attention to anything else.

Yancy laughs low in his throat and shivers work their way down Raleigh’s spine and then Mako’s caught in a feedback from the Drift and their proximity.

“At least try and make it to the bed before you come in your pants, kid,” Yancy says. Raleigh flips him off but moves to stand, pulling Mako with him.

It’s twenty feet to the bedroom, another ten to the bed. It would normally take a minute and a half, two if someone were walking slow, to cross from the kitchen table to the bed. It takes the three of them five, maybe more; Mako doesn’t keep track of time, only knows that she’s pressed up against the wall, grinding against Raleigh as he grinds down against her. Yancy leans against Raleigh’s back, and Raleigh’s hips start and stop and start against as he grinds back against Yancy and then forward against Mako.

Mako watches, her thumbs in Raleigh’s belt loops and a couple fingers curled under the waistband of his pants and boxers, as Yancy pops the button on Raleigh’s fly and works his hand inside Raleigh’s pants. Yancy looks right at Mako, eyes dark and laughing, and says, “If you’re adverse to the bed, you can just go down on her right here. You don’t mind, do you Mako?”

Mako laughs, a counterpoint to Raleigh’s low groan as he drops his head against Yancy’s shoulder. “Oh my god, Yance,” he says. “You’re the worst.”

“You sure about that?” he asks, and he does something Mako doesn’t see because she’s looking at Yancy looking at her, his smile turned into Raleigh’s neck but eyes on her, and Raleigh moans what’s probably a “Yes” but never gets formed past the first breath.

Mako waits until Raleigh’s rocking back and forth on his feet, one hand fisted in her shirt, the other clutching at the wrist of the hand Yancy has down Raleigh’s front to say, “Yancy.”

Yancy takes his mouth from Raleigh’s neck to grin. A bruise is already starting to bloom. He takes his hand away and Raleigh groans.

“I take it back,” Raleigh says, “you’re both awful.” He opens his eyes and blinks, trying to focus on Mako.

Mako grins at him, the picture of innocence if it weren’t for half-open pants and bra straps falling off her shoulders.

“Someone said something about a bed?” she says sweetly.

Yancy laughs and Raleigh leans in to kiss her once on the lips, chaste for the first time all night. “You’re going to be the death of me,” he says.

“It will be a good death,” she promises.

Yancy laughs again and starts tugging them down the hall.

 

Yancy’s already out of his shirt and pants when Mako and Raleigh walk in, just going for the waistband of his boxer briefs.

“Wait,” Mako says, and Yancy looks over his shoulder at her. “Keep them on?” She doesn’t mean it as a question but it comes out that way. The Drift is intimate, but so is sex, and she hadn’t planned on falling into bed with Raleigh and Yancy, let alone both at the same time. Or this soon.

Yancy turns and smiles, softer this time, like he’s back in her head inside the Conn-Pod. He sits on the edge of the bed. “Anything you want,” he says.

“And if you want out of your clothes, I’m all for that,” Raleigh says.

Mako laughs and Yancy beckons her forward. “I can help with that,” he says.

Mako pulls off her shirt and bra, while Yancy works at her pants in between wet kisses against her stomach. His breath ghosts over the wetness that’s spread down her thighs as he eases her clothes down to her knees. Yancy grins up at her, his nose bumping the curve of her belly as he slips one finger and then two inside her, thumb against her clit. Mako breathes out, lips parted, and rocks forward.

Yancy looks past her hip as she does it again and laughs. “Rals looks like he’s going to combust,” he says.

Mako looks over her at Raleigh, who’s slid his pants down to his ankles, but only shoved his underwear ( _They match_ Mako thinks, and she wonders if it’s an accident or on purpose) down far enough to get a hand on his dick.

“He’s gonna come the second he gets his mouth on you,” Yancy says.

Raleigh makes a face and says, “Am not.”

Yancy laughs with his whole body, and Mako’s breath catches in her throat. He slides his fingers out and gestures Raleigh closer. “C’mere kid. Keep the underwear on,” Yancy adds when Raleigh moves to take them off. “We match,” Yancy says with a wicked curved to his mouth for Mako. Mako grins back at him.

Raleigh steps out of his pants and walks forward until he’s standing between Yancy’s legs. Mako sits on the bed next to Yancy.

“I’m just gonna take the edge off,” Yancy says, soft and reassuring as he eases Raleigh’s waistband down until his dick and balls are free. Raleigh lets out a soft moan as Yancy wraps one hand around the base of Raleigh’s dick and the other cups his balls.

“Yancy,” Raleigh says, just shy of a whine.

“I got you,” Yancy says. He takes the head of Raleigh’s cock into his mouth, and it’s three hard sucks and two strokes of his hand before Raleigh’s hands scrabble at Yancy’s shoulders and his mouth opens on a soundless moan.

Yancy pulls off. “Better?” he asks, hands sliding until his thumbs rest on Raleigh’s hipbones.

“Yeah,” Raleigh says. He’s more than a little breathless.

Yancy grins and tucks Raleigh back into his underwear. “Good,” Yancy says, “because I think you have a promise to keep.” He turns to Mako, turned to watch Raleigh and Yancy, one finger rubbing idly against her clit.

Raleigh and Yancy turn matching grins on her. “You look really fucking good, Mako,” Raleigh says.

Mako grins back. “On your knees. Please,” she tells Raleigh.

Raleigh does as he’s told. Mako has never seen someone so pleased to be on his knees.

His smile turns a little shy as he catches some of her wonder. “I like to make my partners feel good,” he says.

Mako smiles and nudges Yancy until there’s enough room for her to sit between his legs. Yancy’s hands splay across the soft skin of her stomach. Mako rests a hand along Raleigh’s jaw.

He turns into it, his mouth tracing along her skin until he’s close enough to move to her knee. Mako’s breath leaves her in a sigh and her fingers move to rest in Raleigh’s hair as he kisses his way up her thigh, his hands pushing until her knees are hooked over Yancy’s. The beat of Yancy’s heart against her back echoes the pulse thundering in Mako’s ears, her wrist, her clit.

Raleigh’s tongue presses against her, and Mako’s thighs push towards Raleigh’s head, and her hips roll towards his mouth. Yancy laughs at the moan Mako makes when she can’t move, her legs too tangled with his. Yancy settles one arm across her hips to keep her still.

“Easy, Mako,” he says in her ear. “We’ve got you.”

Raleigh presses in again, and Mako lets out a long, shuddering sigh and tries to relax against the urge to press Raleigh’s face against her and rock until she comes wet across his face.

Instead, she lets Raleigh’s mouth and tongue play against her clit and Yancy’s free hand brush against her breast as the fire low in her belly rises higher and higher until Mako is sure her entire body is glowing red. Yancy sears a kiss to her neck and Raleigh slides a finger in and up before Mako can’t breathe for the way her orgasm burns through her.

Mako blinks and Raleigh comes into focus, his face as bright as ever.

“Wanna go again?” he asks, hiding half of his smile against her thigh and looking up at her. Yancy snorts behind her.

Mako grins through the breathlessness and runs her hand through his hair. “In a minute,” she says and settles back against Yancy. He sucks in a breath. “I think Yancy could use a hand or two,” Mako says.

“That,” Yancy says, “Would be greatly appreciated.”

 

Even without their briefs, Raleigh and Yancy make a matched set.

Yancy lifts his head and looks at her, his face flushed and a bead of sweat running down his face. “I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not,” he says.

Mako grins, and presses closer against his side to kiss him.

“What’s a compliment?” Raleigh asks. He’d been too busy sliding on a glove to pay attention to the Drift.

“Mako thinks we’re a matching set,” Yancy says. He says it dry and with one corner of his mouth slanted up, like he’s leaning towards not.

Raleigh makes a face as he kneels behind Yancy. He flips open the lube before brightening. “We could though! Like bookends!”

Yancy drops his head back to the pillow he’s curled his arms around and groans while Mako laughs.

“Raleigh I swear to God,” Yancy says, muffled, “you have the shittiest sense of humor and–”

Whatever else Yancy has to say about Raleigh’s sense of humor gets lost in the full-body shiver as presses a finger in.

Raleigh grins at Mako. “Yancy always complains about how loud _I_ am, but he’s always believed in leading by example.”

When Yancy lifts his head again, his blush has started to spread down his neck. “Could you maybe stop gossiping with Mako?” he says to the headboard.

Raleigh rolls his eyes. “So bossy. You’re lucky you don’t have older siblings, Mako.”

Mako grins at Yancy. “I don’t know, having an older brother seems to have a few _up_ sides,” she says and slides her gaze down to his hips. She can’t see his dick, her view blocked by another pillow that Raleigh had shoved under Yancy’s hips, but she can see the lightbulb go off in Yancy’s head. He still hasn’t decided on if it’s the kind of joke you laugh at or groan about when Raleigh works another finger in, and he groans for an entirely different reason.

By the time Raleigh adds a third finger, Yancy’s blush extends to his shoulders and sweat shines across his skin. He keeps his face buried against the mattress.

Mako inches closer until her thigh brushes Yancy’s face. She slides her hand under his jaw, and when he lifts his head for her, the look on his face punches against her sternum and steals her breath.

“I think he’s ready,” she says to Raleigh.

Raleigh grins at Yancy’s face in Mako’s hands and leans down to lay a kiss to the small of Yancy’s back.

Mako and Yancy don’t remember a lot of the rest of the night, apart from kisses on thighs and fingertips on ribs and wrists, but Raleigh swears it almost felt like they were back in the Conn-Pod.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after.

Mako wakes in stops and starts. When the light changes from soft and gray to insistent and yellow across the bed, she groans and buries her face closer into whatever’s closest – Raleigh’s back, apparently.

“Sleepyhead,” he says.

Mako huffs and reaches blindly until she finds the edge of the sheets and drags them over her head. Raleigh laughs.

“Yancy’s rubbing off on you,” he says as he turns onto his back.

“Maybe,” Mako says. She stays under the sheets and curls against Raleigh’s side. “Or maybe I was kept up half the night.”

Raleigh’s fingers skim down her arm. “Sorry,” he says.

“Sure,” she says and edges closer.

Raleigh laughs.

 

Yancy is sitting at the table again when Mako finally pushes Raleigh into the shower and herself out of bed. Midmorning sunshine streams in through the windows, and there’s coffee on the table instead of scotch, but Yancy’s shirt is still wrinkled, and Mako feels warm all over.

“Hey,” she says.

Yancy smiles at her over his shoulder. “Hey,” he says. He turns back and pours her a cup of coffee. “Sleep alright?”

“Yes,” she says. She slides into the chair next to him and wraps her hands around the mug. The coffee smells rich and, more importantly, fresh. She’s missed fresh ground coffee, even if it is hotel brand. “You?”

“Well enough,” Yancy says. He doesn’t miss the quick glance Mako gives him out of the corner of her eye if the hand he rests on her knee is any sign. He keeps reading his paper and gives her a reassuring squeeze. Mako sips her coffee and doesn’t press.

Still, when Raleigh emerges from the bedroom with damp hair and fresh clothes, Yancy simply stands and goes to take his own shower. Raleigh sits down across from Mako. He catches sight of her confusion when he reaches for a mug and the coffee pot.

“Don’t worry,” he says. “He’s always been like this, after.”

Something else must show on her face, because Raleigh gives her soft smile. “Just because there are statistics doesn’t make it any easier when it’s your little brother.”

Mako curls up on her chair, the mug cradled in her hands. “Then why keep doing it?”

Raleigh shrugs. “It was easier to let it happen than to try and wait it out. You felt what it was like last night, and we only drifted three times. Drift for long enough, and it gets harder to block out. Doesn’t happen to everyone though.”

He sounds a little sad. Mako uncurls and reaches until her foot rests against his. Raleigh smiles and hands her half of the comics section from the paper.

 

The end of the day finds Raleigh and Mako on opposite ends of the couch in Mako’s room from each other, their feet tangled together. Yancy comes in from the kitchenette, and sits in the middle with Mako and Raleigh retangling their feet in Yancy’s lap. Something settles between the three of them as Mako keeps flipping channels.

“Only two months left,” Raleigh says. He’s staring at the TV when he says it.

“I have to go back to Germany,” Yancy says. He looks at Raleigh until Raleigh looks back. “You can come, if you want.” Yancy turns to Mako and says, “You, too.”

Mako bites her bottom lip for a second (she swears the habit was Raleigh’s first) before she says, “I’ve been asked to help with the restoration.”

Raleigh can’t stop looking from Mako to Yancy and back again.

Yancy nods and leans back against the cushions. “Okay,” he says.

“Okay?” Raleigh says.

Yancy smiles. “Yeah. Pretty sure that if the orphanage hasn’t burned down by now, they can carry on without me.”

“Okay,” Mako says. Raleigh’s sun-bright grin matches her own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S DONE, IT'S DONE, AFTER NEARLY TWO YEARS, IT'S DONE.
> 
> There was a lot more that was going to go into this, but I think the vague idea of being okay, but there still being a lot left to do, that this fic ends on matches up nicely with the way the film ends, so this is where I'm gonna go ahead and leave it. Hope you had fun reading!


End file.
